The question "Is there any concrete-solid proofs of this space odyssey?" made me want to edit it to remove the s in proofs (someone with enough flair did), however it made me wonder about the plurality of any and proofs.
So please enlighten me about which one is correct.
Is there any concrete-solid proof of this space odyssey?
Are there any concrete-solid proofs of this space odyssey?
If the asker wants to hear about at least one proof, the first one is OK, but what is correct if he wants at least two pieces of evidence?
Answer
If you begin the sentence with the singular copula (is) you are expected to make the object agree in number. Breaking down the SO sentence to its essentials, we have:
Is there any proofs?
This is grammatically incorrect. We can make these agree in number in two ways (as your own examples do):
Is there any proof?
Are there any proofs?
Either is correct. "Proof" or "proofs" doesn't matter as long as the number agrees with the number of the copula.
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